Defense attorney Jason Sheffield said during his closing argument that before he shot Ahmaud Arbery, Travis McMichael “believes that he has committed the offense of burglary.”
Sheffield argued that McMichael had “the right to perform a citizen’s arrest.”
“You do have the right to have a firearm when you make an arrest. You do have the right to stop a person and hold them and detain them. There is risk with that. There are tragic consequences that can come from that,” Sheffield argued.
Earlier today, during the state’s closing argument, lead prosecutor Linda Dunikoski said that McMichael and the other two defendants did not have a right to perform a citizen’s arrest.
Dunikoski told the jury that the defendants’ actions were not a lawful citizen’s arrest because they were “not present when any crime was committed.”
“The suggestion that Ahmaud committed a crime is based on what? Not immediate knowledge, but speculation,” she said
She added that the defendants wanting “to question Ahmaud demonstrates a lack of immediate knowledge [of a crime], which is required, required under the citizen’s arrest law…that means this was not a lawful citizen’s arrest.”
Sheffield said during his closing argument that the “law allows the citizen to make a citizen’s arrest.”
The judge told the jury earlier that he will instruct them on the law before they begin deliberations.
The defense’s closing argument is ongoing.
Source: www.cnn.com